Nutritional Strategies and Clinical Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation: From Risk Reduction to Functional Recovery, Frailty and Muscle Health

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and effective secondary prevention is essential to reduce recurrent events, disability, and healthcare burden. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a multidisciplinary intervention combining exercise training, risk factor management, psychosocial support, and lifestyle modification. Among these components, nutrition is one of the most modifiable and clinically relevant determinants of outcomes, yet it is often underrepresented or insufficiently individualized in routine CR practice.Patients entering CR frequently present with heterogeneous nutritional challenges, including overweight or obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, insulin resistance, diabetes, frailty, sarcopenia, cachexia, micronutrient deficiencies, renal impairment, and poor dietary adherence. In parallel, aging populations and increasing survival after acute cardiovascular events have expanded the need for nutritional approaches that not only reduce risk factors but also improve physical performance, muscle mass, quality of life, and long-term functional independence.Evidence supports dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diets, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), plant-forward diets, and energy-adjusted diets in cardiovascular prevention, but many questions remain regarding their implementation during rehabilitation, personalization according to phenotype, integration with exercise training, and use of nutritional biomarkers or digital monitoring tools. A stronger evidence base is needed to optimize nutritional care across the continuum of cardiac rehabilitation.This Research Topic aims to advance knowledge on the role of nutrition in cardiac rehabilitation by gathering high-quality evidence on dietary strategies, nutritional assessment, and clinically meaningful outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease. We seek to highlight how nutrition can contribute not only to risk factor reduction, but also to improved exercise capacity, body composition, recovery after cardiac events or procedures, metabolic control, and quality of life.Particular emphasis will be placed on vulnerable populations, including older adults and patients affected by frailty, sarcopenia, or disease-related malnutrition, in whom nutritional optimization may substantially improve rehabilitation outcomes.The collection will provide a multidisciplinary platform for clinicians, dietitians, physiologists, and researchers to present innovative interventions, translational studies, and real-world implementation models. Particular emphasis will be placed on personalized and practical nutritional approaches that can be integrated into contemporary rehabilitation programs across different healthcare settings.We welcome original Research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and clinical trials addressing the role of human nutrition in cardiac rehabilitation.Specific themes include:● Dietary patterns (Mediterranean, DASH, plant-based, low-sodium, anti-inflammatory diets) in secondary cardiovascular prevention during CR● Protein intake, sarcopenia prevention, body composition, obesity management, and functional recovery after cardiac events● Nutritional interventions in heart failure, coronary artery disease, post- myocardial infarction(MI), post-coronary artery bypass grafting(CABG), post-percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI), valvular disease, and arrhythmia populations● The role of micronutrients and dietary supplementation in CR ● Gut microbiota and microbial metabolites regulation in CR ● Metabolic health, diabetes management, and cardiometabolic risk modification in CR settings● Nutritional screening, biomarkers, telehealth nutrition counseling, adherence strategies, and personalized nutrition models integrated with exercise rehabilitation● Frailty, malnutrition, cachexia, sarcopenia, muscle wasting, and nutritional strategies to improve resilience and rehabilitation outcomes in cardiovascular patients Topic editors: Natalia Świątoniowska-Lonc, Francesco Perone, Kinga Węgrzynowska-Teodorczyk Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80688/nutritional-strategies-and-clinical-outcomes-in-cardiac-rehabilitation-from-risk-reduction-to-functional-recovery-frailty-and-muscle-health